Editor’s note: News + Record photographer Kim Hawks, herself a cancer survivor, reached out to other survivors in the Chatham County community to share thoughts about their experiences. Here’s what they said:
We are put to the test. Cancer is life-changing. We fight it with our amazing doctors and nurses, an enormous team effort. Our survival is enhanced by incredible support from family and friends. We learn how strong we are.
— Suza White of Pittsboro
After getting diagnosed last year, just a month after my 40th birthday with breast cancer, I was in total shock. Looking back, I feel like I went into “fight or flight” mode for my daughters, for my husband, for my family. Now as a “survivor,” I look at life much differently and how precious it is. I was blessed to meet other fighters who shared their story and I hope to be a positive support to others who may have to also share this journey. Please complete self-exams … no one is ever too young or exempt from breast cancer!
— Heather Dodd of Pittsboro
Since my breast cancer diagnosis, the kindness and selflessness I have received from not only family and friends but from strangers has given me a renewed faith in humanity. I also began to notice “angels,” as I call them, who showed up exactly when I needed them. Six weeks of daily radiation was a difficult time — I wanted to quit — and then I made a new friend in the changing room who cheered me on every single day. Countless times I would meet someone that I was meant to meet for a particular reason. And very often I would receive an unexpected, encouraging word or a knowing smile from a stranger in the grocery store on a down day. I wish everyone would see this inherent kindness in people, without having to face death.
The kindness, support and shared knowledge within the online breast cancer community has been especially important as I quickly realized how little “Breast Cancer Awareness” has taught us. When I was diagnosed five years ago with Stage 3 Triple Negative Breast Cancer, I wasn’t aware that there were different types of breast cancer nor that Triple Negative was aggressive and primarily strikes women in their 30s and 40s. I wasn’t aware of just how difficult treatment and treatment decisions would be physically, emotionally and financially. Without my online tribe of cancer survivors, my journey would have been much so harder to navigate.
Breast cancer took away a lot, but it has given me an abundance of gratitude for things I took for granted. I remember one beautiful summer day while out for a walk, I looked up at the sky and a feeling of awe came over me and I began to cry. But they were tears of joy and profound appreciation for the beauty all around us in nature and in every living being. It was a reaction I struggle to explain, but will never forget. I have struggled a lot with survivor’s guilt but try to remind myself that my friends who have died would want me to try and make the most of every day and find gratitude in the smallest of places.
Since beginning participation in this article, I have a new diagnosis, Stage 4 Metastatic Triple Negative Breast Cancer. I’ll continue to advocate for breast cancer research for metastatic breast cancer which takes the lives of 40,000 men and women in this country every year.
— Christina Root of Raleigh
Being diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 35 was shocking and terrifying! After undergoing chemotherapy, immunotherapy, mastectomy and reconstruction I am so glad to say that I had no evidence of disease during my surgery. Although this last year was unbelievably difficult physically and emotionally, I was surrounded by an incredibly supportive husband, children, family, and friends. I completed all treatments June 2020. I am very thankful to have that all behind me and to have been reminded to cherish each day I have on this earth.
— Jessica Hope of Briar Chapel
From the day I got the call and was told my diagnosis, support flowed to me and appeared from so many unexpected sources — people in my life wanted to help in any way that I could think of. I knew the next morning, as I walked with my dog, that I would survive; this was a “bump in the road,” and I had been on other highways and byways with potholes and worse! I would trust the wisdom and expertise of my doctors, and keep my head and heart in the place where I could see myself on the other side of the journey through treatment. I would survive, and be a healthier person, with her spirit intact. I might even be a “poster woman” for breast cancer survivors! It really was my spirituality that enabled me to keep all of it in perspective. The demonstrations of love and support that my friends and family showered on me were also a big part of my healing, and made the journey sweet in so many very special and unexpected ways.
— Wilma Schroeder of Siler City